Zeng Guofan (1811-1872), formerly known as Zicheng, was born in Xiangxiang, Hunan. Born in a teacher's family, he studied in court training in his early years and then entered Yuelu Academy, the center of the school of statecraft at that time. In the eighteenth year of Daoguang (1838), he entered imperial academy, and at the age of 29, he was promoted to the right assistant minister of does. For the next four years, he served as an assistant minister in various ministries, including soldiers, workers, criminals and officials. Ten years and seven moves, ten steps in a row, and a prosperous career. When Zeng Guofan was an official in the capital, he devoted himself to the study of statecraft, righteousness and reason, and had close contacts with Mei Zengliang, an ancient prose writer of Tongcheng School. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), Ding Mu was worried. When the Taiping Army entered Hunan, it was ordered to practice as an assistant minister in Hunan, and then expanded to the Xiang Army, where it fought against the Taiping Army for a long time. In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860), he was awarded the governor of the two rivers and an imperial minister; Tongzhi for three years (1864), in July, he broke ground in Beijing, seeking to add Prince Taibao and seal the first-class marquis. Zeng Guofan is an influential figure in the modern history of China. He is a high-ranking frontier official and has made great contributions to the revival of Tongzhi. He was not only the pillar of the new policy of self-improvement in the late Qing Dynasty, but also a tool to maintain the decadent dynasty and suppress the Taiping Army. [ 1]

Zeng Guofan is a very important figure who will be the prime minister and the official residence for his life. However, even in the army, he never forgot literature. In people's minds, as the ideal life paradigm of China scholar-officials, contributions, virtues and opinions were perfectly realized in Zeng's life. He has read widely all his life. Among them, there are numerous works, which are very excellent. The article is vigorous and powerful, inheriting Tongcheng all the way and starting a school in Xiangxiang, which can be called a "big hand". Xu Ge, a scholar of the Republic of China, once praised: "The articles of social governors are sincere and unique, not only for the great writers of the Qing Dynasty, but also for the great writers of past dynasties." [2] Liang Qichao also believes that Zeng Guofan can "enter the biography" only in terms of articles. [3] During the years of Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi, "almost all the writers who worked for a while were out of the Zeng family." [4] Indeed, as a writer, with his diligent creation and unique insights, accompanied by his prominent fame, he has exerted an influence that cannot be ignored in the history of modern literature in China, especially in the history of the rise and fall of Tongcheng School.

This paper intends to study Zeng Guofan and Tongcheng School's "revival" from the academic background, purpose and intention of Zeng Guofan's revival of Tongcheng School, the development of Tongcheng School and its enlightenment to future generations, so as to clarify the clues and sort out the context.

one

China is a country of poetry and well-deserved prose. From pre-Qin Oracle Bone Inscriptions to inscriptions on bronze in Shang and Zhou Dynasties: From Shangshu, the source of China's ancient prose, to various pre-Qin prose and historical prose, we can see the dignified and historical vicissitudes of prose as the source of culture. Wei and Jin Ci Fu, handsome men and beautiful women; Eight masters in Tang and Song Dynasties, the decline of eight generations. In the Ming Dynasty, "Sanyuan", Zhang Dai and Gui Youguang sprang up suddenly, and their literary talents were brilliant ... The prism of history reflected the long history of prose art, and the prose field in the Qing Dynasty once again showed a scene of prosperity and development. As far as style is concerned, the authenticity of historical biography, the significance of essays, the influx of parallel prose, the massiness of inscriptions and the halal elegance of reading strategies have all reached a very high level. Not only that, but also a famous prose school-Tongcheng School appeared in this period.

Tongcheng School is the largest prose school in Qing Dynasty. It respects Cheng and Zhu Daotong, and boasts eight masters from Qin and Han Dynasties to Tang and Song Dynasties. From generation to generation, spread throughout the country, the scale is large and the time is long, which is unique in the history of China literature.

As a spectacular literary phenomenon, the development process of Tongcheng School from emergence to extinction can be roughly divided into three periods. Tongcheng School was founded in Gan Yong period, and Fang Bao and Liu Dakui were the representatives of this period. Their literary thoughts and creative practice laid the foundation for the formation of Tongcheng School. The second period was the period when Yao Nai and his disciples were active. During this period, a powerful group of writers centered on Yao was formed. At this time, Tongcheng School, as a literary school, was very powerful. The period from the Opium War to the beginning of the 20th century is the third period of Tongcheng School. Tongcheng School is still the authentic prose in this period, although its prestige and influence are not as good as those of Gan and Jia. After Yao Nai's death, the glory of Tongcheng's prose is gone forever, and his four outstanding writers, Guan Tong, Fang and Yao Ying, inherited Tongcheng. However, in 1950s, Yao's great-grandfather Fang, Yao and Mei passed away one after another, which was undoubtedly a great loss to Tongcheng School facing decline. At this time, it was Zeng Guofan who held high the banner of Tongcheng School and used his political position to call for a gathering of aides and friends, so that Tongcheng School presented a so-called "resurgence" situation. Therefore, the Zeng family is known as the "Zhongxing leader" of Tongcheng School.

It seems logical that Zeng Guofan took Tongcheng School as the forerunner and rose when Tongcheng School was declining. But if you think about it carefully, why did you turn a blind eye to Sinology, which is known as the orthodoxy of the Qing Dynasty, and have a soft spot for the revived Song School and Tongcheng ancient prose? Investigate its reason, might as well examine the academic background and historical background of accepting Tongcheng School.

Qing Dynasty studies have a wide range of contents, covering the ideology and culture of the Qing Dynasty in 268 years. All pre-Qin Confucianism, Confucian Classics in Han Dynasty and Neo-Confucianism in Song and Ming Dynasties are reflected and summarized within the scope of their textual research. From the content point of view, the learning in Qing Dynasty can be divided into: the study of practical application in the early Qing Dynasty, the study of Ganjia Sinology in the middle Qing Dynasty and the modern Confucian classics since Daoxian County in the late Qing Dynasty. In this regard, Wang Guowei once said that there were "three changes" in the academic circles in the Qing Dynasty: the first country changed, the Gansu family changed, and the Daoxian county changed. The academic characteristics of each period are summarized by "the beginning of the country is great, the learning of Ganjia is fine, and the learning of Daoxian is new" [5].

From Qing Dynasty to Ganjia period, it evolved into a new pattern. With the prosperity of Sinology, textual research, which has sprung up suddenly, has almost become the dominant academic field in China in the whole 18th century, and a large number of textual researchers such as Hui Dong, Dai Zhen, Duan Yucai and Wang Niansun have emerged. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the ideological trend of statecraft, which had been rising all the time, changed from the original mainstream position to an undercurrent. The Neo-Confucianism advocated by Zhu Cheng during the reign of Kangxi also underwent subtle changes during the reign of Qianlong. Tongcheng school, which was originally in the orthodox position of the article, was also impacted and squeezed at this time, and its orthodox position began to shake.

Faced with the challenge of textual research, Tongcheng school figures represented by Yao Nai actively responded, trying to adjust themselves and gain a foothold in a relatively unfavorable situation. On the one hand, attack instead of defense, criticize, criticize and even attack textual research. Although Ganjia Sinology has its positive significance in saving the space of Song studies, it also has indelible achievements in sorting out ancient documents and materials. However, it is rich in the past and thinner than the present, and it does not care about real politics. Some textual research scholars are so trivial that they forget the purpose of learning. On the other hand, he actively mediated the dispute between Han and Song Dynasties and advocated paying equal attention to righteousness, textual research and articles, which was a great contribution of Tongcheng literary theory and was also impressed by Zeng Guofan. Once said in the preface to Ouyang Sheng's works:

In the mid-Qianlong period, Hainan Confucianism and grotesque scholars advocated great knowledge and boasted countless words of textual research, and thousands of words could not stop. Don't set up a new ambition, called "Sinology", which profoundly rejected Song Zheren's theory of righteousness and thought it was not enough to survive. This is a complicated text. Mr. Yao is exclusive and believes that justice, textual research and rhetoric cannot be neglected. Justice is quality, and then attach the text, textual research and return. In a series, this is particularly serious. At that time, it was isolated and helpless, and it was passed down for 50 or 60 years. Modern students recite the article a little and accept their words. [6]

It can be seen that Zeng Guofan is really tired of tedious textual research, but he shows great interest in Tongcheng literature, which is constantly improving, innovating and changing. This is one of the reasons why he personally chose Yao Nai to devote himself to Tongcheng ancient literature.

Facing the increasingly complicated contradictions between old and new and the increasingly serious social crisis, the idea of practical application has been valued and advocated, which has become a temporary trend. Because the research scope of Ganjia Sinology has never gone beyond the scope of ancient books, this style of study is obviously contrary to the trend of thought of practical application and has naturally been severely criticized. This trend of thought also influenced the literary theory of Tongcheng School. In fact, the three ancestors of Tongcheng all treated the society with a positive attitude. They advocate the study of practical application, but it is not limited to neo-Confucianism. They regard it as the highest criterion to be beneficial to society and the country, and do not measure everything by reason. On the eve of the Opium War, China was beset with social crisis, and Tongcheng literati Yao Nai's great-grandfather Guan Tong, Mei Zengliang, Fang, and others were extremely active and became the backbone of the school of statecraft. Among them, Yao Ying clearly put forward "righteousness, economy, listening and rhetoric" and listed "economy" as one of the basic requirements of Tongcheng School. This is also what Zeng Guofan cares about. As a politician and strategist, Zeng Guofan's special position in the society at that time required him to be ambitious and pragmatic in his essays.

The author believes that it is precisely because Tongcheng School itself is an open system, which not only absorbs all the advantages, but also creates according to the needs of the times, and constantly carries out modern transformation to adapt to the general environment of traditional academic development and social development at that time, which makes it have strong vitality, lasting vitality and greater attraction. From the background of traditional academic history, Zeng Guofan's return to Tongcheng School seems inevitable.

two

As we all know, Zeng Guofan is not a direct disciple of Tongcheng School. He helped Tongcheng School when it was weak, and made it move towards rejuvenation, which made it brilliant again in the literary world in the late Qing Dynasty. There should be other reasons besides his personal preference for Tongcheng ancient prose. What effect Zeng Guofan intends to achieve in reviving Tongcheng School is worth thinking and discussing.

First, Zeng's early love for China's ancient literature, he was not only a frontier official in Qing Dynasty, but also a famous writer in modern times. He admired Yao Nai and had a close personal relationship with him, and affirmed that Tongcheng ancient prose was on the right track of literature. Tongcheng literature will naturally come out when it tends to decline. On the other hand, China's traditional successful life paradigm of "building morality, making contributions and making statements" also influenced Zeng Guofan's pursuit of making statements while building morality and making contributions. As he was not a direct disciple of Tongcheng School, he was able to understand and evaluate Tongcheng School more objectively and fairly, which was beneficial for him to add vitality to Tongcheng School's ancient prose with his own literary theory and creative practice.

Secondly, it cannot be denied that Zeng Guofan, as a strategist, had a military purpose in reviving Tongcheng School. When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the largest and most influential peasant uprising in China's history, swept through most parts of the south of the Yangtze River, Zeng Guofan, who tried his best to defend feudal rule, was entrusted by the court with the heavy responsibility of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising. As an all-round strategist, the Zeng family not only responded positively in the military, but also had a set of policies in the ideological field.

Zeng Guofan took advantage of the extreme actions of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to promote Catholicism and blindly destroy thousands of years of traditional culture in China, shouldered the banner of maintaining feudal orthodoxy and ethical norms, and tried his best to win the hearts of the people. Tongcheng School was favored by the Zeng family because it respected Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism as the ideological basis of feudal rule, and became an invisible and powerful tool to fight against the Taiping Army and win the hearts of scholars. Zeng Guofan firmly grasped the anti-traditional side of the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in "Asking for Guangdong Bandits", criticizing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for "stealing foreign things and worshiping gods" and "quoting China's ethics, poetry and canon for thousands of years, which was swept away." These became Zeng Guofan's political declaration to encourage and form armed forces against the Taiping Army. Tongcheng literature played an important role in suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.

Third: Tongcheng School and Westernization Trend of Thought. In 1960s, with the increasing social crisis in modern China, the trend of Westernization began to sprout and gradually became a strong voice of the times. As a politician with lofty aspirations, he inherited Tongcheng, Zhongxing Tongcheng and their westernization thoughts, and the initiation and practice were basically synchronized. As we all know, Tongcheng School in the late Qing Dynasty paid attention to the West while adhering to Neo-Confucianism, which coincided with Zeng's westernization thought of "learning from China and using the West". If Tongcheng articles are used to cheer up the Westernization Movement, it will not only reduce the resistance of die-hards, but also integrate intellectuals from all over the world to join the Westernization Movement.

Westernization trend of thought is a direct continuation of practical trend of thought in the new era background. The pragmatic spirit of practical application pushed the practical thinkers to put the idea of "learning from foreigners to control foreigners" into practice, thus deepening the trend of western learning in the late Qing Dynasty. Zeng Guofan, the main commander of "Tongcheng Zhongxing", embodies the obvious transition track from practical thinking to westernization thinking.

Zeng Guofan, as the leader of early Westernization, joined Tongcheng School on the eve of Westernization Movement, which made it flourish again. By no means blindly muddle through the ancient history of Tongcheng, but "winding to suit Tongcheng's way" (preface to Ouyang Ji), aiming at promoting westernization through Tongcheng, trying to inject new blood into Tongcheng's weak body in the late Qing Dynasty and let Tongcheng school shoulder the heavy responsibility of publicizing westernization.

Zeng was not only a writer, but his special status determined that his motivation to revitalize Tongcheng School was multiple and complicated, and the effect he wanted to achieve by promoting Tongcheng was also diverse. We should have a clear understanding of this.

three

Zeng Guofan's ancient prose theory inherited the literary thoughts of the three ancestors of Tongcheng, and developed and innovated in the new environment and situation.

Li Shuchang once said when discussing the origin of Tongcheng School in the book "Continuation of Ancient Literary Classics":

..... once went to Xiangxiang, expanded the Yao family, and combined the words of merit into one painting. He took over all the leaders, crossed the White House and returned to the Han Dynasty for three generations, which completely restored the articles of Sima Qian, Ban Gu, Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu. Are they not heroes, but elegant people? Beggars have only one person since Ouyang.

We don't care whether Li Shuchang, as a student of the Zeng family, is selfish in this passage, but one thing is certain, that is, Zeng Guofan's spirit of "becoming bigger" in the history of Tongcheng School. As we know, Tongcheng School has developed into modern times (especially after the death of Yao's great-grandfather), and its glory is gone forever. In the face of such a decline, the question of how to revive is historically placed in front of the Zeng family. Fortunately, with the foresight of politicians and the talents of military strategists and writers, he clearly realized that "the article changes with the world" (Ouyang Sheng's preface to the pen), and thus put forward new literary ideas such as "adapting to the times" and "saving the world", which achieved the effect of saving the rise and fall of evils and expanded the literary theory of Tongcheng School to a new stage.

First: practicality and mind and awareness. The ideological trend of practical application runs through Tongcheng School's literary theory. As early as Liu Dakui's Essays, he pointed out: "Righteousness, calligraphy and economy are the facts of writing." Yao Nai also attached great importance to the expression of "loyalty and righteousness, stressing integrity, moral cultivation, and helping the world's talents" (Preface to Lotus Pond Poetry). In fact, Yao Ying was the first person in Tongcheng who explicitly put forward "economy". Facing the social reality with his special identity and combining his own personal experience, Yao put forward four main points of reading composition: rationality, restraint, restraint and erudition. (A letter with Wu Yueqing) This formulation is undoubtedly extremely important in the development history of Tongcheng literary theory. Unfortunately, due to the fate and changing status of Yao Ying, this formulation did not arouse much response at that time. Of course, fortunately, Zeng Guofan noticed. Influenced and edified by Huxiang culture for a long time, he paid attention to practical application and explored useful knowledge, which made him establish his ambition of practical application very early. Facing the present situation of Tongcheng ancient prose at that time, Zeng Guofan, as a writer, began to realize that Tongcheng ancient prose had revealed the disadvantages of "emptiness" and "triviality" in his successors. On the other hand, his sensitivity as a politician made him realize that it was really difficult to save the world and revitalize China directly by relying on empty dogma and tedious textual research in the face of the social reality of internal and external troubles and contradictions at that time. So he naturally accepted Yao Ying's slogan. On the one hand, he simplified "hearing more" to "textual research" and advocated "the study of righteousness, the study of words and chapters, the study of classics and the study of textual research" and "these four are indispensable" (Notes to Qiu Quezhai's Diary); On the other hand, it further links these four subjects with Confucius' four subjects of morality, literature, language and politics to increase its authority:

Righteousness is a branch of virtue in Confucius's life, and he was a scholar in Song Dynasty. Textual research is a subject of literature in Confucius, and it is also a scholar in China in this world. The person who wrote the chapter is a branch of Confucius, and it also comes from ancient literature, art and poetry, which is meaningful to the world. Economic man is a branch of political affairs in Confucius' eyes, as are previous books on etiquette and politics and contemporary anecdotes. ("Encourage Learning") [7]

"Economy" means "managing the world and helping people". Zeng Guofan took the study of "economy" as the subject of Confucius' politics in order to change the world trend and try to make traditional ideology and culture serve politics and society more effectively. Among these four, I once thought: "The study of righteousness and reason is the greatest, righteousness and reason are the key to action, and economy is the foundation. The study of the word chapter is also true, so those who play righteousness are also. " He also said: "If you know the knowledge of justice and rationality, the economy should rely on it." In Zeng Guofan's view, righteousness is the body, economy is the use, and textual research is rich. The content of the article is both substantial and clear, which can better play its social role and effectively serve the feudal regime.

Based on the above spirit, Zeng Guofan emphasized that writers should have "mind" and "consciousness" in order to write good articles. He said: "Whether the article is successful or not, knowledge ranks third and talent ranks seventh." (Reply to Liu Xiaxian's Zhong Chengshu) The "gifts" other than learning are endowments and talents, with special emphasis on "mind" and "knowledge of tools", and "talents are rooted in tools". I once said in my diary: "Reading and doing things in life depends on my mind." [8] He also said, "Are there any other gentlemen who have freed themselves from everyone?" It is also immeasurable. "Mind" and "awareness" are the strength of a person's moral personality and the main guarantee of his ability to practice the world. If you don't talk about instruments and careers, if you blindly study acoustic diseases and play word games, you can't write Fu's masterpiece. Obviously, the so-called "mind" and "consciousness" refer to all aspects of moral cultivation, and the practical ability to help the people is undoubtedly its important connotation. At this point, Zeng Guofan deserved to set an example for people at that time, and he was confident: "There were not many ancient poets, such as Yuanming, Xiangshan, Dongpo and Weng Fang. " [9]

In a word, Zeng Guofan, who is proficient in civil and military affairs, wants to save the defeat in the face of the decline of the feudal dynasty; Faced with the scarcity of ancient prose in Tongcheng, he wanted to enrich its content, thus playing the banner of practical use in time and decisively, emphasizing that the authors of ancient prose should have the ambition of practical use and pay attention to social reality, so that the creation of ancient prose can better reflect social reality and better serve the feudal regime. This also echoed the trend of the new policy of self-improvement at that time. In the history of Tongcheng literary theory, Zeng Guofan's contribution of "becoming great" cannot be simply denied.